The support comes from established firms in the space as well as "several very generous private individuals."

As cryptocurrencies are expanding their scope and blockchain technology is adopted by more and more mainstream players, the industry naturally feels the need to try and get more influence on the political establishment as traditional financial institutions do. We see this with bitcoin conferences hosting high level politicians and now with the funding of professional lobbyists.

Coin Center, which describes itself as the leading non-profit research and advocacy center focused on the public policy issues facing cryptocurrency technologies, revealed on Tuesday that over the past month it has raised over $1 million to fund its 2016 operations. The lobbyists said that they “are thrilled to announce new support from 21, Bitstamp, Blockstream, Digital Currency Group, Gem, Genesis Global Trading, Grayscale Investments, Netki, Onename, Overstock.com, and Virtual Capital Ventures, as well as several very generous private individuals.”

The Washington DC headquartered Coin Center says its mission is to make sure that policymakers understand the workings and implications of cryptocurrency, and to ensure that the technology remains as free of unnecessary regulation as possible. Beyond publishing research papers, to describe its success in terms of funding it described its operations since its beginnings in 2014 by saying: “We have a full-fledged government affairs and advocacy program, and since the beginning of the year we have met with, briefed, and successfully lobbied senior policymakers in Congress, at several state regulatory agencies, several state attorneys general, and federal agencies as well.”